Supreme Court Says Donald Trump Has Some Immunity From Prosecution In January 6th Election Conspiracy Case
Donald Trump Photo by Mark Peterson-Pool/Getty Images
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that Donald Trump had immunity from prosecution for his official acts, dealing a blow to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election conspiracy case against the former president.
“Presidents cannot be indicted based on conduct for which they are immune from prosecution. On remand, the District Court must carefully analyze the indictment’s remaining allegations to determine
whether they too involve conduct for which a President must be immune from prosecution,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “And the parties and the District Court must ensure that sufficient allegations support the indictment’s charges without such conduct. Testimony or private records of the President or his advisers probing such conduct may not be admitted as evidence at trial.”
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Read the Trump immunity decision.
The 6-3 decision, with the court’s liberals dissenting, makes it all the more likely that Trump’s D.C. federal criminal case will be delayed until after the 2024 presidential election.
The ruling essentially raises doubts about what charges Trump will face when he goes to trial and, for the ones that remain, the type of evidence that Smith and his prosecution team will be able to bring before a jury.
The court ruled that presidents do not have immunity from criminal prosecution for unofficial acts, but the decision affirmed that even Trump’s tweets and his public statements on January 6th “fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities.”
“As the sole person charged by the Constitution with executing the laws of the United States, the President oversees—and thus will frequently speak publicly about—a vast array of activities that touch on nearly every aspect of American life,” Roberts wrote. “Indeed, a long-recognized aspect of Presidential power is using the office’s “bully pulpit” to persuade Americans, including by speaking forcefully or critically, in ways that the President believes would advance the public interest. He is even expected to comment on those matters of public concern that may not directly implicate the activities of the Federal Government—for instance, to comfort the Nation in the wake of an emergency or tragedy. For these reasons, most of a President’s public communications are likely to fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities.”
More to come.